Codexis Announces Appointment of John Grate as Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer
Redwood City, CA - September 19, 2002Codexis, Inc. announced today the appointment of Dr. John Grate as Vice-President of Research and Development and Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Grate has worked with the company as a member of its Industrial Advisory Board since February of 2002.
Dr. Grate was founding Vice President of Research Development of Catalytica Fine Chemicals and its successor, Catalytica Pharmaceuticals, subsidiaries of Catalytica, Inc, and played a key role in its growth. Catalytica grew to be a leading supplier of intermediates and active ingredients to the pharmaceutical industry, reaching sales in 2000 of over $400 million. The company was acquired in December of 2000 by DSM N.V., one of the world’s largest fine chemical companies, creating the world’s largest supplier to the pharmaceutical industry.
During his twenty years with Catalytica, Dr. Grate held various roles in catalytic process research and development and senior management. In launching and building Catalytica’s fine chemical and pharmaceuticals business, Dr. Grate led the chemical process research and development activity, including the management of collaborations, technology acquisitions, intellectual property, and technology transfers. Under his leadership, Catalytica invented, developed, and commercialized numerous innovative pharmaceutical chemical processes.
“John’s addition to the management team is illustrative of the next stage in Codexis development as a product-focused company,“ said Alan Shaw, President of Codexis. “We are delighted to have an individual with his experience joining our team. His track record in successfully identifying, developing and commercializing processes for the synthesis of high-value pharmaceutical intermediates and bulk actives speaks for itself. We look forward to continued successes as John helps Codexis achieve it growth objectives.”
“Pharmaceutical customers are more interested than ever in rapidly developed, efficient process technologies for the manufacture of their chemical intermediates and active ingredients,” according to John Grate. ”In a few short years, Codexis has established itself as a leading provider of proprietary syntheses of intermediates and active ingredients based on its proprietary MolecularBreeding™ directed molecular evolution technologies and is ideally positioned to address this growing customer need. Complementing Codexis’ MolecularBreeding™ platform with chemical process research and development provides a powerful approach to rapidly develop simpler and more efficient processes for the manufacture of complex pharmaceutical molecules. I am pleased be joining Codexis and look forward to being a part of its continued success.”
About Codexis, Inc.
Codexis, Inc. is a provider of high-value chemical products and services to the worldwide life science and fine chemical industry. Its proprietary technologies were designed for the rapid discovery and development of catalysts and processes for the efficient synthesis of valuable chemicals. Codexis intends to supply customers with catalysts, bulk pharmaceutical actives, advanced pharmaceutical intermediates, and chemical building blocks and intermediates. Codexis has seven strategic alliances in the chemicals field, and has over 18 potential products and processes in its research pipeline, with seven product candidates in development, including three processes operating at commercial scale.
Contact:
Codexis, Inc.
Tassos Gianakakos
Sr. Vice President, Business Development
T. +1-650-298-5423
F. +1-650-298-5449
tassos.gianakakos@codexis.com